Intrigued by the challenge of pioneering a new product

August 1, 2012

James M. was looking for a new challenge, a way to use his business skills and a well-recognized company to work for. He found his challenge by joining Adobe in order to start up the EchoSign business in Europe and to build a team to execute his vision.

EchoSign, Adobe’s electronic signature solution, allows businesses to shorten the process of signing documents, creating a better customer experience and reliably exchanging documents with the benefits of speed, control and security. Adobe acquired EchoSign in July of last year. James, Head of EchoSign in Europe, joined in November after reviewing offers from other companies and narrowing in on Adobe.

“I was fortunate to have several options, but this was the business that really had all the pieces fitting together that I was looking for,” he said. “I was keen on joining a recognized brand.”

In addition to adjusting to a new job, James had to recruit others to join his team. “I only knew one guy in the building. I had a desk, but no team,” he says. “I had to build everything from scratch.”

For James, part of the excitement about his new job was the process of constructing a knowledgeable team to work with him. “That was the challenge for me- I knew I was coming in to establish something from the ground up,” he says. “And that’s what excites me and challenges me on a daily basis.”

An enormous responsibility lay in James’s hands as he began to construct his EchoSign team with each new hire. “I’m not an expert in every area, so the people I hire come in with specific skill sets,” he says. “Each person I recruit has to bring something to the team.”

“I’m always looking for self-starters, people who just pick things up and run. They have to be innovative,” he says. “I want people who are motivated so we can all make a significant contribution to establish this business.”

The work he’s done has received plenty of positive feedback. Adobe and many of its customers including Groupon and BT are embracing electronic signatures. “An online business requires an online solution,” Ash Mahmud, Head of CRM UK/IRE for Groupon. “Echosign enables Groupon to streamline the sales process.”

James says he and his team have clear ambitions for the EchoSign solution. “The vision is to establish EchoSign as the web contracting service of choice,” he says. “We want to ensure that we are the market leader in the space.”

But beyond the success of EchoSign in Europe, James says in the midst of pioneering a product and building a team, he’s found his fit at Adobe. “I very much get the sense that there is potential for me personally to build my career at Adobe,” he says. “And the association with an internationally recognized brand is motivating.”